CES 2013

The team at Mionix can never be called out for not taking their time with a product - certainly not in the case of the Mionix NASH 20 headset. Here we’re seeing a pair of headphones with a mic that were originally scheduled to be released last year - here at CES 2014, we’re seeing them in their final form for the first time. For an idea of how high-end these cans sound right this minute, Mionix points toward the meaning of NASH: “according to Arabic mythology, NASH is an Arrowhead, which is a suitable name for a top class gaming headset with superior precision and sharp sound.”

This year at CES 2014, LG will be bringing on a collection of ULTRA HD TV sets that'll be headlined by a massive 104.69-inch set. This beast of a Model 105UC9 will be curved, working with a 21:9 aspect ratio, and will be the first of its kind to be revealed in the world. Also appearing will be 65-, 79-, 84- and 98-inch class models, and that's just for starters - LG's full collection of Ultra HD TVs includes a whopping 12 units in all.

If this year's Mobile World Congress taught us one thing, it's that no matter how interesting and innovative the gadget makers and software developers of our global community are, it's the top brands that end up making or breaking the show. Make or break the show for the press, that is. Case in point: our several articles written from our chat with Google's Mathias Duarte - they ended up easily becoming some of the most popular posts we had this week, and Google didn't reveal any new products at the convention. In fact, they didn't have a stand - the chat we had wasn't even on the map. And yet, there it is - Google stole the show anyway.

Right before Sony's press conference at CES 2013, they showed off a five-minute video that featured three of their newest products being handcrafted and assembled right in front of our eyes. The company is now making that video available for anyone to watch, not just CES goers. The video features the Xperia Z, the Cybershot RX1, and one of its HandyCam HD camcorders.

While we got to see plenty of notebooks and all-in-ones from Vizio during CES 2013, we also got the chance to check out a 7-inch and 10-inch tablet from the company that don't seem to be as far along in the development process as the other products. Nevertheless, they certainly were cool, sporting technical specifications that can take on the larger tablet manufacturers out there. Sadly, we don't have release dates for either of these two tablets, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about them in the meantime!

As you can imagine, touchscreens have a slight bias against long fingernails, and if you happen to have long fingernails, we're sure that you've already developed some special techniques to effectively use your phone and tablet. However, a new product called Nano Nails aims to essentially turn those long fingernails into touchscreen stylii.

If you didn't know, last week was CES 2013. We were there in Las Vegas in full force to report on the latest and greatest gadgets, so we know first-hand at how packed the convention center was, so it may not be surprising to you that over 150,000 attendees ended up roaming the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center, with 1.92 million square feet of exhibit space.

Samsung may have had big screens on its mind at CES, but the company also previewed what might be the display the Galaxy S IV (aka Galaxy S4) is blessed with, together with the flexible AMOLED we'd really like it to have. Buried on the company's stand was a display of curved AMOLED concepts under Samsung's YOUM brand, AnandTech reports, with the panels curving around the edges and sides of the mock-up devices. More imminent, however, is a 4.99-inch 1080p Full HD screen running at a luscious 440ppi, which is likely to find its way into Samsung's next Android flagship.

In some ways, one could argue that CES 2013 was really all about the accessories. Sure, a lot of companies where there unveiling new hardware, whether that hardware was a massive TV, a new gaming tablet, or a phone that has an eInk display on the backside, but there were more accessories than we care to count being shown on the floor. Each of these accessories seemed to offer something unique; each was newsworthy in it's own particular way. There were some that caught more attention than others, naturally, but nearly every accessory we saw is bound to get someone, somewhere excited.

CES isn't short of product launches, and if you want to keep up you need the right tools. For 2013, the SlashGear team tried out a new workflow: carrying Samsung's Galaxy Camera and doing as much of our uploading of photos and video wirelessly. We'd already been impressed by the Galaxy Camera in our review, but taking the Android-powered point-and-shoot out into the field for what's arguably the toughest assignment on a tech-head's calendar really put it through its paces. Read on for our full report.

Tons of big-name companies make an appearance at CES every year, and while Microsoft backed out of this year's show, there were still a bevy of companies that filled the void. LG, Sony, Qualcomm, Verizon, Samsung, Intel, and more, all stepped up to the plate to take Microsoft's place, but one other big-name company that made an appearance at the show was Apple. They didn't necessarily have a booth, or had any of their execs on the show floor, but their products were everywhere, and I'm not even exaggerating when I say such a thing.

This past week at CES 2013, the SlashGear team was privy to a handful of fantastic or otherwise generally interesting next-generation technology, but for yours truly, there was nothing as significant for its designer as NVIDIA's Project SHIELD. I want to be clear in saying that there may have been more market-ready, real-world devices and services presented to us that have hard release dates and/or real track records for success in earlier models, but when you take Project SHIELD and speak about how important even just the idea is for the NVIDIA brand and ecosystem, nothing else had as important a set of implications.